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WikiLeaks faces donations blow as it
fights for survival
AFP, LONDON
WikiLeaks faced a fresh threat to its survival on Saturday as the online payment
service PayPal cut off the account used for donations to the whistleblowing Web
site.
WikiLeaks is already fighting to stay on the Internet. It switched its domain to
Switzerland because its original Web address was shut down by a US provider, as
it continues to release thousands of classified US diplomatic cables.
At the same time, Sweden has issued an amended international arrest warrant for
WikiLeaksˇ¦ frontman Julian Assange, who is believed to be in Britain, and the
Times newspaper reported he could be arrested next week.
In a new blow to the Web site, the US-based PayPal, which is owned by auctions
group eBay, announced it would stop taking donations for WikiLeaks thus cutting
off a key source of its income.
ˇ§PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a
violation of the PayPal acceptable use policy, which states that our payment
service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or
instruct others to engage in illegal activity,ˇ¨ it said in a statement.
WikiLeaks blamed ˇ§US government pressureˇ¨ for the PayPal ban, in a message on
its Twitter feed.
Assange broke cover on Friday to say in an online chat that he had increased
security after receiving death threats.
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